The Steering Column
Left Hand Drive from our President

I want to thank Ralph Arata for the very informative presentation that he made at our October Club meeting. His samples that he brought were spot on and made his points. It is going to save me some money in the future as I was one of those guys that lived by the 3,000 mile oil change "rule". I also taught my kids the same "rule". Now we won't be changing the oil so often. Personally, I will be going to 5,000 or 6,000 miles between changes. For the B however, I will stick with the current change rule, since it does not get driven on a regular basis. It was nice to see the turnout for our Club's Birthday Party. Of course the free champagne didn't have anything to do with it! Next month's meeting will also have a good presentation, as Gerry Geraci will be telling us about his time at the filming of the TV show "Wheeler Dealers" where they used his MGA in the filming.

After a bunch of rain and cooler weather, it looks like we have a window of opportunity coming up to drive with our tops down. I know that some people drive that way no matter what the weather, I was speaking for people like me. Jana and I have missed so many driving events this year that we are glad when we can get out with the top down. Just the other day we made it to the Chicago Botanical Garden in the B and it was admired by several of the other visitors. There are still some great drives that we hope to make this year.

We started the nomination process for our club officers and we have good nominees for each office. Dave Novak was nominated for Club President, Ray Hansen and John Kearns were nominated for Club VP, Victor L'Heureux for Club Secretary and Phil Wydra for Club Treasurer. We will complete the nomination process at the November meeting.

I also mentioned at our last meeting that we want to increase advertising in the Driveline, so that we can fund a reimbursement program for the folks that plan our driving events. The plan is to provide the cost of a tank of gas for an MGB, 12 gallons of gas at the going rate. For multiple day events, we would reimburse at a two-tank rate. If you have suggestions for advertising prospects, let us know. As an added incentive, Barney Gaylord is setting up our web site to display the Driveline ads there as well. We get numerous hits on our site, average over 20,000 per month. This is a good deal for our advertisers!

For December we have our Christmas party instead of our regular meeting. Please see another page on the Driveline to sign up to attend. Also, Jana our B, and I hope to see you soon on the road in your MG.

-- George Phariss

	The Steering Column
	Right Hand Drive from our Vice-President

I’ve always liked the autumn season especially when the summer-like ‘Indian summer’ weather sticks around for more than a couple of days. I was able to get the MG out on the road to enjoy the weather and scenery that is so plentiful this time of year. The colors were brilliant reds, yellows, and rust brown on the winding roads of northern McHenry County. It felt good to have the top down even though the cool breeze was a bit nippy and wearing a hooded sweatshirt took off some of the chill.

We all know its coming – I won’t mention the ‘S’ word – and the only way to stay away is to get away to some southern state. Most of us don’t have that luxury so we bundle up or cars and prepare for the worst. Steve Skegg gave us a quick overview of things to do to prepare our cars for the winter at the October club meeting and Dave Bralich will make his garage available for club members to perform last minute repairs/maintenance in November.

Last year I procrastinated in preparing for the winter and my car suffered for this lack of preparation. Well, not this year. I’ve been diligently preparing a humble abode for my cars as I have been reporting in the past few issues of Driveline. The garage is almost complete. The floor is ready, electrical improvements have been made, the shop cabinets are painted and ready for hanging and the shop benches and shelving are waiting to be moved into position. The cars are 15 feet away from entering this new environment and my goal is to move them in before Thanksgiving. (Since I will be in Omaha over the Thanksgiving holiday I will not be able to attend the I>Cruise to the Rock as my final driving adventure).

I guess what it comes down to is that you need to get out and drive your car and enjoy the feeling of the open road before winter really sets in.. Our driving season is short in this part of the country and you need to take advantage of any chance you get to drive. When the driving is done, be sure to prepare your car for the off-season and you will be ready when the warm weather arrives again.

I can’t wait.

-- ~~ Victor L’Heureux